Italy's League says EU budget rules "absurd," need re-writing

Reuters Staff

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ROME, May 15 (Reuters) - Italy’s far-right Northern League said on Tuesday that any government coalition with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement needed to be prepared to overcome “absurd” European Union budget rules.

“First must come the things that need doing, and only afterwards (worry about) absurd rules written many years ago when the world was totally different,” the League’s economics spokesman Claudio Borghi said in a statement.

“We need to be able to speak with a single voice, to say to the EU, to which we pay many billions of euros every year, that for us Italians come first,” Borghi said.

The League and 5-Star have been negotiating for six days to try to form a joint programme, with the League taking a more strident position on the need to “re-write” EU rules on public finances and immigration. (Reporting by Gavin Jones; Editing by Crispian Balmer)